BAGHDAD - The Iraqi man who helped destroy a statue of Saddam Hussein with a sledgehammer four years ago says the fall of Hussein's regime accomplished nothing.

"We got rid of a tyrant and tyranny. But we were surprised that after one thief had left, another 40 replaced him," Khadim al-Jubouri told the Washington Post. "Now, we regret that Saddam Hussein is gone, no matter how much we hated him."

The image of the muscular Jubouri swinging his sledgehammer at Hussein's statue flashed across the world on April 9, 2003.

"As I hit the statue, I was out of my mind. I was full of hatred," Jubouri told the Post. "When it fell, I was so happy. I thought things were going to improve."

But things have not improved, Jubouri told the Post. He's seen friends and relatives killed, kidnapped or forced to leave their homes. His income is a quarter of what it used to be.

"It's gotten worse," he told the Post. "We can hardly make both ends meet."